I scarcely can even manage to begin on this entry about the 1920s because there is simply so damn much to say, but after approximately 20 dozen outline attempts I plan to just try. That there is a connection between women’s appearance and her struggle for equality in the 1920s is not surprising, for as much as I think that this applies to numerous eras, it is manifest in so many ways during this decade and is, in fact, probably what led me to recognize this connection in the first place.
Fashion, no stranger to any American woman, apparently of any class, takes some interesting though probably familiar changes during this time. More significant though is the previously alluded to fact of the utter expansion of beauty culture, specifically the cosmetics and formal hairstyling industries during this time. In Hope in a Jar ,Peiss states that the volume of American cosmetics sales in 1849, amounted to just a mere $355,000, probably due to the “home remedy” and private nature of the industry. However, by the end of the 1920s, it was estimated that Americans spent 700 million on cosmetics. Banner cites a similar trend in the growth of beauty parlours, which numbered at just 5,000 in 1920 but grew to 25,000 by mid-decade and 40,000 nationwide by 1930. There were numerous factors that entered into this such as the expansion of advertising and media, but the changes in fashion and the growth of beauty culture, reflected and created numerous changes in the status of women.
Most prominently to me, cosmetics grew because of a growing independence for women. Probably, reader, you are even more familiar with the little thing called the Constitution than Miss Lady and you realize that women, through tireless decades of effort, had recently obtained the right to vote. (Yay. We’re just like people now.) The effort to do this, along with growing industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and the money driven need to fulfill the American dream (money), had pushed and pulled women from the private sphere into the public, where for better or for worse, appearance is more important than when in the domestic and private sphere. Women now work in professional and service fields in increasing numbers, including teaching and beauty culture (hey!).
Coupled with this is the lifting of some of the Victorian constrictions that had restricted women prior to this. To paint or not to paint was no longer a question or just for prostitutes and other bad reputation ladies. The corset, restrictive as hell, had been switched out for the girdle, which, trust me, ain’t no picnic either, but which generally allows for a relatively full range of motion if one is motivated enough. The hemline rises, in fact a good bit more than the dress reformers of yestercentury had pictured, though not quite so high as the stupid costume makers of today seem to think. (Future entry: Halloween— an opportunity to express your inner poor judgment whore!) All of these things reflect the new modern woman’s ability to create a place for herself in society (yes, with limitations) and move about society freely, literally, and in the sense that she can occupy a greater number of positions and associate with more people than before.
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| Super free 1920s girdle |
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| Fabulous! |
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| Look at these ladies being all public sphere with their ankles! |
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| Note boxy shapes for later down the page. |
Makeup: Make-up, acceptable to be noticeable for the first time in polite society, swung to the opposite side of the pendulum in terms of its heaviness. The heavily powdered face, the extended brow, and deep and deeply unnatural cupid’s bow lip were popular during this time, and epitomized in icons such as Clara Bow. As I’ve written about previously, this is the moment that truly launches the democratic ideal of beauty, but also that ties it forever to products, and makes beauty a commodity to be sold to women over and over at a fairly high cost. From this time we see the rise of many commercial cosmetics companies from the lines of Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden, to a bit later, Max Factor and then Charles Revson aka Revlon. More dangerous than the idea that any woman can be beautiful for a price is the idea that a woman who refuses to pay this price is likely not to be beautiful, because she isn’t playing by the new rules. It’s tempting to write this off as the beginning of the end, a tragedy for women. However, it seems undeniable that women of the time…shit, women of my time…or well at least Miss Lady, used the new cosmetics to create new selves. A made up woman was a modern woman, who defined herself against the old Victorian guard and their ideas about who she should be, a woman who displayed the triumph of industrialization and American hope all over her damn face, and was looking forward, moving forward. Perhaps a bit overstated and dramatic, in my usual way, but still true.
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| Painted ladies! |
Androgyny: Woe be to the American male who thinks that a bob is an androgynous hairdo today (to be clear, Miss Lady supports whatever kinda hairdo people want to wear…except maybe ugly ones) but nonetheless the bob, in my assessment embraced a sort of androgyny. It was a hairdo, that once again, in a glance made a woman clearly distinct from her elders and elder ideas, but also, in shedding the very locks that had for so long symbolized femininity, women claimed their rights, not just to control their own hair, but also to vote like men, to work like men, to drink like men, and to go wherever they pleased in life. Did some women wear it as a purely aesethetic fashion choice? Undoubtedly. Such is the case of any significant hairdo (thinking of the Afro specifically) but that doesn’t negate its political or cultural meaning, and it certainly doesn’t negate its practical purposes. As much as I like a long beauty process, there’s no doubt that taking it out of your life, does free you up for something that might be a more productive interest for you. Clearly, that shit don’t apply to Miss Lady, but the point remains.
Even more clearly androgynous than the bob though, is the silhouette of the dress during this time, which becomes increasingly more androgynous as the decade progresses. Hemlines rise, sure, but waistlines drop, lower and lower, until no trace of the hip, the previous hallmark of femininity ever accentuated by the corset, is really visible at all. Women take to binding their breasts, again rather than accentuating them. The overall result, while not androgynous or even masculine to the modern eye, is in that context an erasure of all that had defined femininity visually before (and later as it ebbs and flows throughout the 20th century. Again, this is perhaps not significant or conscious for all wearers, but the relative freedom and gender erasure of this new dress, does mirror the relative breakdown of old gender norms, roles, and spheres for the modern American woman of the 20s.
While most of what I have written here admittedly grows out of the history of white middle class women, as that is the history that has been written about the most and the identity that applies to me (for a while...teacher salary ain't keep pace with COL!), the dynamic changes for African- American women are also visible in their beauty culture. I've made a distinction here and said "their" not because I'm the kinda gal who others people with the word "they," but because African- American and white beauty culture were and still are pretty seperate, for a complex set of reasons that involve choice, self-determination, discrimination, racism, and practicality all at once. Let's put the lid back on that can of worms though until I can address it in a more informed and thorough way.
The democratic ideal also applied to women of color at this time, though it was not without complicated racist and self-deprecating overtones as products were marketed and purchased to assist women in emulating white ideals of beauty. The history of skin lighteners, hair straighteners, and such have been well documented and this debate is a part of public discourse today (for a quick example see Good Hair), so I'd rather go into more detail about profound racial uplift that can be found in the print culture that reflects the fashion and beauty practices of African- American women around this time.
In the 1920's, magazines for African- American women increasingly begin to represent models of black beauty in their stories and adverstisements. For instance, in early 1920s editions of The Half Century magazine, women of color were represented as beauty queens (in addition to celebrating their education, okay) and used to model the products being sold. Furthermore, this sent the clear message to African- American women that they were capable of owning the products being sold. Indeed they were too. The magazine, its adverstisements, and its readership reflected powerful change for African- American women; it reflected literacy, a rise in education levels, urbanization, and the increasing spending power of the Black middle class. I won't pretend that all of these positive things are not occuring within the context of a still profoundly racially divided and unequal America, but it is undeniable that uplift for African-American women is visible in the fashion and beauty culture of the 1920s and increases throughout the first part of the 20th century. I learned this by examining reprints of The Half Century itself and from the writing of Noliwe Rooks in her 2004 book, Ladies Pages: African- American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them. As I've only barely scratched the surface here, I recommend her book and any primary sources like The Half Century that you can access. (No link here for you. Lemme know if you find something digital with free access.)
While most of what I have written here admittedly grows out of the history of white middle class women, as that is the history that has been written about the most and the identity that applies to me (for a while...teacher salary ain't keep pace with COL!), the dynamic changes for African- American women are also visible in their beauty culture. I've made a distinction here and said "their" not because I'm the kinda gal who others people with the word "they," but because African- American and white beauty culture were and still are pretty seperate, for a complex set of reasons that involve choice, self-determination, discrimination, racism, and practicality all at once. Let's put the lid back on that can of worms though until I can address it in a more informed and thorough way.
The democratic ideal also applied to women of color at this time, though it was not without complicated racist and self-deprecating overtones as products were marketed and purchased to assist women in emulating white ideals of beauty. The history of skin lighteners, hair straighteners, and such have been well documented and this debate is a part of public discourse today (for a quick example see Good Hair), so I'd rather go into more detail about profound racial uplift that can be found in the print culture that reflects the fashion and beauty practices of African- American women around this time.
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| Ad from The Half Century |
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| Map detailing number of beauty salons in 1925 Harlem |
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| 1920s Harlem Beauty Salon |
In the 1920's, magazines for African- American women increasingly begin to represent models of black beauty in their stories and adverstisements. For instance, in early 1920s editions of The Half Century magazine, women of color were represented as beauty queens (in addition to celebrating their education, okay) and used to model the products being sold. Furthermore, this sent the clear message to African- American women that they were capable of owning the products being sold. Indeed they were too. The magazine, its adverstisements, and its readership reflected powerful change for African- American women; it reflected literacy, a rise in education levels, urbanization, and the increasing spending power of the Black middle class. I won't pretend that all of these positive things are not occuring within the context of a still profoundly racially divided and unequal America, but it is undeniable that uplift for African-American women is visible in the fashion and beauty culture of the 1920s and increases throughout the first part of the 20th century. I learned this by examining reprints of The Half Century itself and from the writing of Noliwe Rooks in her 2004 book, Ladies Pages: African- American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them. As I've only barely scratched the surface here, I recommend her book and any primary sources like The Half Century that you can access. (No link here for you. Lemme know if you find something digital with free access.)
Just as I could scarcely begin this entry, I can scarcely manage to end it. I imagine that this one will be subject to edits, which we really shouldn’t take as an indication of any weakness in myself as a writer (though I will, trust me) but rather as an indication of the complexity of this era, of its rich possibility as an entry point for teaching both the history leading up to it, that which follows, interpreting what it means to be a modern woman.
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